Written Agreements & Your Divorce Attorney
A good divorce attorney can be expensive. A good divorce attorney can be worth their weight in gold, bringing you benefits – or saving you money – that is worth many more times their fees. There are a few ways to engage your divorce attorney, and while the final choice will be down to you and influence heavily by your personal situation, there are some methods of engagement that are better than others.
Flat Fee Engagement
A flat fee arrangement with your divorce attorney might seem like an attractive proposition: you know where you stand, and there is unlikely to be any hidden surprises in the bills.
However, beware this approach. The things that your divorce attorney will and will not do for this flat fee will likely be set out quite strictly, and in actual fact you might find that the surprises in the bills are down to things that you thought you had paid for. Even if your attorney is not going to charge you for ’surprise’ items, then bear in mind that they have little or no motivation to do any more than is absolutely necessary.
What is to stop a divorce attorney taking on 200 clients in a month, all on a flat fee basis? Will the attorney be able to handle all of these divorces properly? Of course not! Of course a good professional shouldn’t be influenced by the way he or she is paid, but in reality there will be at least some (perhaps unconcious) reaction resulting from it.
If you want to go down this route then make sure you have a written agreement setting out what exactly you will get for your money. And monitor it.
Pay By The Hour
Paying by the hour – the alternative to a flat fee price – introduces its own pitfalls: what if your attorney charges time for things that you thought were covered? Will they charge for any phone calls you make into the office? Writing letters to you or your spouse? Traveling time from their office to the courts? What else?
A divorce attorney lying about the hours spent on a case would be acting fraudulently, and it is unlikely that they will risk their careers for a few extra dollars an hour. But setting out in writing what you will and will not be charged for will save any embarrassments later.
Retainer
Many attorneys will ask for a retainer upfront. Your fees (if you are paying by hour) will be taken out of this retain until there is nothing left. Any further costs will be chargeable separately. A retainer is fairly common practice, but make sure you’re made aware if it – and the size of this retainer – before you start. You don’t want to be hit with a bill for $20,000.00 before anything kicks off if you’re struggling to pay for the groceries. Check if the retainer can be refunded, too.
Quotation
Getting an accurate quotation – or an estimate – is a difficult proposition. Unless your case is a very simple one, then the attorney cannot know what surprises lurk around the corner. If something unexpected crops up, or if the other party is being deliberately difficult, or if the financial affairs are hidden or are particularly complex, then the estimate can soon be gone.
A lawyer who gives an estimate is likely to be setting him or herself up for a no-win situation: hit the estimate and it’s not more than you expect; miss it by a few thousand dollars and they’ve got a seriously annoyed client on their hands.
If you do get an estimate then remember that it is only a rough estimate of the work as seen at the time the estimate was given. Divorce attorneys are good, but they cannot see into the future.
Written Terms
Make sure all terms of our agreement are written down. It doesn’t take long to set these things out on paper, and it can save a lot of problems later. If your divorce attorney is reluctant to sign a contract agreeing to the terms then it’s time to find another one.
